MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

10/26 Coaches update

Cubs manager Mike Quade needs a new bench coach and Ryne Sandberg does not appear to be in line for the job. Alan Trammell, who was the bench coach for four years under Lou Piniella, has joined Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson’s staff as bench coach, Arizona announced Tuesday. Trammell joins other former Cubs as Don Baylor was named hitting coach and Eric Young named first base coach. Gibson was Trammell’s bench coach in Detroit when Trammell managed the Tigers from 2003-05.

Quade, given a two-year contract one week ago after a successful six-week term at the end of the 2010 season, was not expected to name the rest of his staff until after the World Series. MLB asks teams to refrain from making any announcements during the series, which gets underway Wednesday in San Francisco between the Giants and Rangers.

Sandberg, one of the finalists for the Cubs manager’s job, was not expected to replace Trammell on the bench and it was not clear what role the Hall of Fame second baseman would have in the organization. That likely will be one of the topics discussed during the Cubs’ organizational meetings, which get underway next week in Arizona.

The majority of the Cubs staff was expected to return in 2011, including pitching coach Larry Rothschild, hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, bullpen coach Lester Strode, third base coach Ivan DeJesus and first base coach Bob Dernier. Dernier had been the team’s roving baserunning instructor before joining the big league team when Quade took over for Piniella on Aug. 23.

Matt Sinatro, who was a special assistant to the manager and involved with the scouting reports and working with the catchers, was not expected to return in 2011.

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Ryne Sandberg won Pacific Coast League Manager Of The Year. He developed the young, up and coming, players. Why wouldn’t he be the next in line to serve as Bench Coach? I don’t hear anyone banging down his door to offer him a managerial role, so what gives. It only would make sense to add Ryno as Bench Coach. He was snubbed once, now he gets the snub again. The Cubs could avert a PR disaster by naming Ryno as the Bench Coach, but instead will add fuel onto the fire. What, you don’t think Ryno and Q could work together? They must not have a clue about teamwork then. Something foul is in the air.

No it is the whole organization that smells, well the office anyway, from Tom on down.

I was happy watching guys like Barry Foot, and Dave Kingman, lose games every day after school. Then 1984, and Ryno. We had a new face to cheer on, and a reason to believe we could win. I came in, or at least got hooked on the cubs, with Ryno, and I believe I’m going out with him.

You see Tom, people want something, or someone, to believe in, and when you take that away, they”ll find it somewhere.

I wanted Ryno to get the cubs to the title, the guy who got close a player, but never got over the hump. He was one of us he WAS a CUB.

Maybe Sandberg has made it clear he has no further interest in remaining with the organization. We may never know “what happened”. What I am wondering is what did WE FANS do that has brought upon such disrespect by the Tom Ricketts that he retains Hendry? Are WE the ones that have shown our true agenda to be selfish and vain? Isn’t Tom Ricketts the one that has gone “under cover” as a boss? For what gain? Popularity? Self-indulgence? Are we fans not to think…gee Tom, don’t you have more pressing issues to attend to other than appearing on Undercover Boss? Like maybe getting a competant GM to help turn your underperforming ball club let alone spend your money wisely? Our we fans supposed to be PROUD of this new owner? He’s not making pride in this team easy to come by.

we have suffered through the bad times and listened to Ronnie woowooing through the good times… as loyal and committed fans we need to know why two guys with their seemingly own agendas are disrespecting one of our own. I can almost understand Quade getting the job – Hendry was allowed to dig himself into a hole he couldn’t get out of with the caretaker role given to Quade. But Ryno deserved at least to publicly be offered the Bench role even he had turned it down just as publicly.

At this time every year – transatlantic flights are at their cheapest to buy now – I start planning my trips to Wrigley for the next season.

The bad taste in my mouth caused by this disrespect of our HOFer by Hendry and Ricketts is keeping my spend in my pocket until either Hendry goes or we get the truth about why Sandberg has been so disrespected.

So what you may say?

Well put it like this…

8 tickets in Bleachers
4 tickets in IF Field Box
4 tickets in Dugout box
$25 average secondary spend at each game

And there are many like me who feel completely disenfranchised by Hendry and Ricketts. Just one thousand similarly disassociated fans means $2-2.5million off the Ricketts’ bottom line. Four thousand becomes $10million. Do they want to be presiding over the next Orioles or Pirates? Trust me, if they carry on as they are, their $900m investment will be worth peanuts. The Wrigley tourists alone will not keep the business in its current health.

In ADDITION to fans like hustlelikereed and myself who have decided NOT to spend thousands of dollars in 2011 because of hitting our brickwall with Rindrey, there may be other fans that are more forgiving/tolerant of the inept GM and his so-far “all talk” employer Tom Ricketts yet still choose not to spend hard earned money because of the economy forcing those fans to re-prioritize their spending habits. With this said you would think that the new owners would realize the best way to counteract both the fans’ frustration with a bad ball club AND the economy would be to at least SHOW AN EFFORT OF CHANGE by dismissing the GM that painted the roster and the payroll in such a corner, that would at least present an effort of following up on all their “tough talk”. Look what Bochy did with SF, he left their highest paid player (Zito) OFF THE PLAY-OFF AND WORLD SERIES ROSTER as well as BENCHING THEIR SECOND HIGHEST PAID PLAYER (Rowand) both in favor of playing younger, better players that give the club a better chance of winning ANY game, let alone a play-off game. Can anybody imagine Quade doing that with either Zambrano or Soriano? Too much embarrassment for Hendry I would think. Plus it shows that the SF GM had SEVERAL “kids” in the minors ready to push the UNDERPERFORMING vets and their big paychecks out of starting roles not to mention the SF GM was smart enough to trade a veteran catcher (Molina) not because he had to dump payroll (Theriot, Fontenot, Lee, Lilly) to make up for the Zito/Rowand mistakes but to MAKE ROOM for the better player (Posey). At least Molina yet had trade value. What trade value does Hendry’s current roster have? Can anybody imagine Hendry getting any REAL value for Soriano, Zambrano, Baker, Silva, Fukodome, Hill…? Hendry’s trading appears to be for all the WRONG reasons while good GMs trade for all the RIGHT reasons. If only Quade will show he has nothing to lose the next two seasons and take a COMMANDING role with the roster. I think under the current environment of the organization that is our only hope. Ryno’s gone, Bochy is in SF, Hendry is still here…Quade, a deserving man for the job even though not the man a lot of us thought SHOULD get the job is now our only hope to do what’s right. Getting past Ryno, Hendry, Ricktetts…I think I can muster enough Cub love to back Quade and pull for him doing what we all know what must be done and follow Bochy’s lead.

Sandberg was a great player. According to the players who were under his watch in the Minors (Hoffpauir, Fuld, Colvin), he did well. The Cubs did have front office people (besides Hendry) watch him at Peoria, Tenn & Iowa. They feel he needs more time. What Sandberg didn’t know — and couldn’t prepare for — was the way the Cubs players responded to Quade. Hendry, etc. want Sandberg to stay in the organization. OK, so the conversation wasn’t, “Ryno, you didn’t get the manager job, but we want you to be a coach.” Hendry wanted to give Sandberg a chance to, as Ryno says, “digest” the news. But think about this: If Sandberg had been hired as manager, would he have Quade on his staff? No. Why does Q have to have Ryno on his staff? The bench coach must have the trust/confidence of the manager besides being a good organizer/multi-tasker, and Quade needs to hand-pick that person.

I’m sorry Carrie, I just cannot agree. Ryno was shamefully treated by Hendry and Ricketts. The very next phonecall after saying “Mike we are going with you” should have been “Ryno we value all you have done on the farm, we have gone with Quade because…, but we’d like to keep you in the organisation…” The first Ryno was aware he was still wanted was via the press… and that after the outcry had started. Shameful. Completely Shameful. There was always going to be fallout from the decision… Jim and Tom have just made it worse by their crass insensitivity.

And no I would not expect Quade to have to have Ryno as part of his coaching team. But as a man of the Cubs, I would expect him to want what was best for the Cubs – and having Sandberg and Quade with all their knowledge of the farm would be what is best. If Quade has confidence in his own abilities, having Sandberg sat next to him would be no threat whatsoever. We have Castro, HJ Lee and Barney coming through – do we not need the best on board to help them settle into everyday life in the Majors. Would Castro’s error count not benefit from working out every day with Ryno?

I wish Quade all the best, but he will be building his team without my bucks as long as Hendry runs the show.

I agree with hustle AND Carrie (doomsday is coming!!), Quade should be able to choose his own coaching staff (agreeing with Carrie) BUT why WOULDN’T Quade WANT Sandberg in the dugout considering Sandberg’s vast knowledge of all the AA and AAA players that may be an integral part of the 2011 season? If it’s what’s best for WINNING and Quade IS confident in his ability then he should at least ASK Sandberg to be the bench coach. Who would be better in or out of the organization? Nobody. Also Carrie with that line of reasoning… Quade may HAVE to “want” both the “ya can’t get rid of me” Rothschild and the “I’m God’s gift to hitters” Jaramillo (hell, Sandberg would probably make a better hitting coach with all he learned from Jim Frey, turning a middle infielder into an RBI go to guy is some acheivment!!) on his staff…because Hendry PUT them and their ridiculous contract in place, possibly with PINELLA’s blessing but are they QUADE’S GUYS? Hendry apparently doesn’t think of Sandberg as a “must have” coach like he does Rothschild and Jaramillo, go figure. There is no getting around that Hendry had a good but short run at a COMPETING team but he has shown more often than not why he SHOULDN’T be a GM at all, not just for the Cubs. But I’m sure we’ll see if I’m right in two years (or hopefully sooner) when Hendry is un-employed. I’m SURE the Yankees, Red Sox and Oakland are chomping at the bit just waiting to “pluck” Hendry as THEIR next GM. I’m laughin’ so hard now I gotta stop. O.K. I can’t stop, the hits keep on coming, remember when Hendry duped us all into how Jaramillo wiill improve the entire offense ESPECIALLY Soriano because of his days in Texas? Ha! Soriano really responded in 2010…NOT, and he was healthy. Excuses will help Hendry keep his job, not performance.

It?s more of a case of disgust, disillusionment, and sadness for me. To watch our beloved Cubbies (bleeding Cubbie blue since ?76) come to the brink of the Promised Land, only to fall short was heartbreaking.

We believed in the contract signings then (Soriano, Fukudome, Bradley, Big-Z, etc, etc.) but held our breath because we knew with those contracts it was ?all in.?

Well, it didn?t work out as planned and now we are pretty much the laughing stock of the MLB as we are shackled with some of the worst contracts imaginable. Well, maybe the Mets are worse off. Maybe.

The point is: something has got to give. If you are going to change your fortune, you must change your direction. Manager is a good start, but he can only do so much for so long before the front office will tie his hands. Hendry needs to go.

As an organization with such loyal, diehard fans as the Cubs, you can only slap the fans in the face and call them idiots so many times before they leave.

showtime65 I of course agree with you about Hendry needing to go but I for one was not on board the 8 year deal given to a DH at best and a defensive liablilty. With Hendry around the possibility is very real he will fall in love with the next “must have” free agent…Adam “No Glove” Dunn. Soriano and Dunn on the same NATIONAL LEAGUE team would be an absolutley unforgivable mis-use of the teams funds.

hustlelikereed is right again and I am not surprised. Byrd was a “nice” move. It may only appear to be more than that when compared to the abysmal signings of Soriano, Bradley/Silva and Fukodome. Any other GM signing Byrd would probably have done so as a complimentary player but the Hendry Cubs are so bad that Bryd was looked at as more of an impact player which adds to the illusion of it being a “great” move, not the case. Hendry had few options to fill the centerfield postion and landed a good player in Byrd but certainly NOT the centerfielder/LEAD-OFF man that should have been acquired….YEARS BEFORE. With all the money going to Soriano, Fukodome, Zambrano and Silva ALL INFERIOR players of course Hendry is going to be left with payroll just enough for players of Byrd’s caliber…good but a poor man’s Carl Crawford or (FORMER CUB-OOPS!!) Josh Hamilton…. Hustlelkereed, I don’t think Rindrey gives a rat’s **s what us fans think, they don’t have to as long as there are JUST enough of us to keep filling the ballpark and leaping off the cliff. I’m getting more satisfaction from Carrie’s blog than the team itself! THANKS CARRIE.

Showtime, I’m with Joey. We applauded the signings of Soriano and Fukudome, we were pleased he re-signed ARam, DPLee, Big Z and Dempster – but we never applauded the terms of the contracts… especially handing out NTCs like confetti.

Bradley given his lack of stickability at a team prior to the Cubs was always questionable. Especially given the team favourite, sacrificed to make the signing viable… DeRosa’s health problems since were not forseeable so Hendry cannot claim this victory even if a hollow one.

The signing of Byrd should not be applauded… that is what a GM is paid to do… every time.

Anyway, Carrie, my question to you…

Do Jim and the Ricketts actually read this column or ask how your readers are responding…?

The handling of the culmination of the managerial search
was an unmitigated disaster. Do they actually understand the alienation of many who bleed Cubbie blue?
Year 2 and the rebuilding process is going to need us all on board to succeed financially.

Or whether or not state of the art automobile manufacturer signs are displayed OR whether or not the owner of OUR beloved Cubs appears on Undercover Boss. Give us at least the effort of assembling a competative team year after year instead of a “spend heavily, foolishly and cross your fingers no one cares THAT much to notice” effort. The effort should have started by replacing Hendry, that ONE move would have at least shown us fans that the Ricketts meant business. Instead we get Hendry, Quade, Rothschild, Jaramillo all over again…the definition of insanity.

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